A Zoom Transformation: Build Community, Practice Inclusion
Transcript

Description: Treating zoom participants equitably and caringly in multiplatform worship and other church activities is an expression of love and justice that can transform the community while teaching practical lessons in inclusion applicable to other justice contexts. We share what we’ve learned about the techniques, the costs, and the rewards.

Contents
Welcome / Overview	2
Section 1: Impact of Zoom Inclusion	5
Section 2: Tech Elements for Zoom Inclusion	7
Section 3: Worship Enhancements for Zoom Inclusion	8
Section 4: Zoom Inclusion for Children	10
Section 5: Our Process - The Wins and the Challenges	11
Grappling with imperfection	11
Grappling with technology	12
Section 6: Parallels to Other Inclusion Initiatives	13
Our Journey: The Awakening	14
Our Journey: The Assessment I. Do we care enough?	14
Our Journey: The Assessment II. Costs of doing it. Costs of not doing it.	15
Our Journey: The Process. Individual, cultural, and institutional changes	15
Our Journey: The Rewards	16
In Conclusion	17

Welcome / Overview

Ben Ogilvie: Welcome. We are so glad you're here. We'd like to do a quick exercise before we begin to get everyone thinking about inclusion. Please pause the video for 30 seconds to write down words or phrases that reflect why inclusion matters to you.
Thank you. Hello. I'm Ben Ogilvie, and I use she/they pronouns.

Stephanie Smith: Hi, I'm Stephanie Smith, and I use she/her pronouns.

Nathan Heigert: And I'm Nathan Heigert, and my pronouns are he and him. We are members of Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church in Hayward, California. And together last summer, we created the Zoom Inclusion Group, or ZIG. We are passionate about zoom inclusion, and are looking forward to sharing our passion with you in this workshop. Here's how our journey began.

Ben: In July of 2022, we had been holding multi platform services for almost a year, and it was going pretty well. At least, that's how it seemed from the physical sanctuary. But when we looked closer, we uncovered some issues. I introduced the topic in a sermon last summer, Here's a snippet of that sermon. 

There's a privileged group: the people in the sanctuary. There's a marginalized group: the people on Zoom. Things we do, or don't do, in the sanctuary, affect the people on Zoom. If we don't say every word into a microphone, they miss things. If the worship leader invites a verbal response, and the Zoomies can't unmute, they're excluded from that. If we do something the camera can't see, the Zoomies are excluded from that. These are subtle acts of exclusion.

Stephanie: I used to live close to the church. But now I'm an hour and a half away. So I am a regular zoom participant, a Zoomie, as we say, and I was just starting to drift away. But since we began the Zoom inclusion work, I felt connected again, somebody saw me, noticed I was there and waved, and many small gestures. I was not outside the group looking in, I was a member of the group who was in another location. And that's a crucial difference. So zoom inclusion has just felt like a big hug from the Starr King community.

Nathan: I too used to live close to the church. And now I live in Denmark. Zoom inclusion has suddenly become very personal for me and my family. We'll share more of our experiences later on.

Slide: Remote participants are just as important as in-person ones.

Ben: This workshop is about three ideas. First, we believe that remote participants are just as important as in person ones. We feel this in our bones. Given that, what do we need to do? Now maybe you're thinking, Oh, of course that's true. I don't need to go to a workshop to learn that. Maybe we could all agree on it in principle. The question is, are we living it? Are we making it real through our actions? Do remote participants feel it in their bones?

Slide: Practicing inclusion can be transformative

Nathan: Second, practicing inclusion can be transformative. We started out just trying to make things better for the Zoomies. We ended up changing the feel of the whole church. Roomies, the people physically in the room, as well as Zoomies love feeling more connected. The Zoom inclusion practice gives us constant reminders to look out for each other, to care for each other, to reach out with love, especially to the ones who can never come to church because of health or distance. The joy of this connection every Sunday morning is palpable and it ripples through everything else we do. Zoom inclusion has made us kinder, more thoughtful, more connected, more caring.

Slide: Zoom inclusion provides a learning lab for other inclusion initiatives

Stephanie: Third, we believe that Zoom inclusion provides a learning lab for other inclusion initiatives. The process of asking how we can make zoom inclusion real and then implementing the answers is a valuable learning experience that can inspire and guide our other justice and inclusion efforts.

Ben: When I gave that sermon last summer, I was speaking from my viewpoint as a member of the worship committee and the tech team, someone who had been deeply involved in crafting the worship experience through Covid and into multi-platform. I had become aware that we really weren't treating our Zoomies very well. 

Slide: If you say you love someone but you treat them badly, what kind of love is that?

We were giving them a distinctly second rate experience coupled with these subtle and completely unintentional messages, that they really weren't very important to us. And by "us" here, I mean, "us Roomies". So we started the ZIG with Nathan and I as Roomies and members of the tech team, and Stephanie as a longtime church member now a Zoomie. What we set out to do is give the Zoomies just as good an experience as the Roomies. This was partly about equity, honoring the equal worth and dignity of every person, and partly about love, which is really inseparable from equity, because if you say you love someone, but you treat them badly, what kind of love is that? It was about bringing the Zoomies solidly back into our circle of love.

Stephanie: We feel like we've done a pretty good job of that given the results. And in this workshop, we'd like to share some of the things we did. A few of these are technical like adding a camera in the front for the Zoomies to see the faces of the Roomies. But most are cultural, small but important changes in worship and a commitment to zoom inclusion that transcends worship to encompass other aspects of church life.

Slide: Practicing inclusion that isn’t emotionally charged is a good way to begin.

Nathan: We were also aware, some of us, that this was a great opportunity to practice inclusion in a context that wasn't emotionally charged. Multi-platform worship is brand new. We weren't brought up to think it had to be a certain way or that making mistakes in it made us bad people. We're open to trying new things and failing and trying something else. These are ways in which zoom inclusion is different from other inclusion initiatives. At the same time, it has many parallels. For instance, there were important things we had to learn, including that we were causing harm unknowingly and completely unintentionally.

Stephanie: That we couldn't do anything without a Roomie-Zoomie collaboration,
Ben: That we had to get support and make cultural changes, otherwise, it wouldn't stick.
Nathan: That we had to be real about the challenges and the resistance, and at the same time.
Stephanie: Never lose track of the why. Why are we doing this? What might happen if we didn't do it? Probably losing members, for instance. What are we gaining?
Ben: We'll talk about this later in the workshop.

Stephanie: We won't go into a lot of technical details here. Instead, we're putting some tech notes in the handouts. 

Two more observations before we began. One is we mention zoom a lot because that's the platform we use. But most of what we have to say is really platform independent. The other is we'll talk about changes we made to embrace our remote participants in meaningful ways. But the precise details of what we did are not the main point. 

Slide: Do remote participants feel like they’re inside or outside the congregation’s circle of love?

What's important is the goals we had and the questions we grappled with on the way. Do remote participants feel like they're inside or outside the congregation's circle of love? Do they matter less than or as much as the people who attend in person? How are these things communicated? Your answers might be quite different from ours depending on factors like the size of your church, both physically in members and in staff and the number of remote participants you generally have.
Section 1: Impact of Zoom Inclusion
Maria Clay-Emerson: We've had a wonderful experience with zoom and it's really helped us feel connected to Starr King and to our daughter. Our daughter, Joanna, is a member of the church.

Danielis Kuchins: My insight is a little bit different, because I am not somebody who has had a long connection with Starr King. But somebody who is a newbie here precisely because of the Zoom connections during Covid, and only able to still stay connected, because of the Zoom connections. Most of the time, I am not able to be present because of a variety of health conditions. And I am incredibly grateful that Starr King has gone to the time and trouble and expense of continuing top quality zoom inclusion, because otherwise, I would definitely be alone on a little island right now. Thank you.

Ben: We did this with a certain group of people in mind, mostly you folks. And yet it benefits everybody, because any of us could be forced to be on zoom in a given week, or choose to. And maybe we're not fit to be seen, but it's perfectly okay to have the camera off.

Danielis: Gee, was that targeted at me? Just a little bit?

Ben: Not at all. No,

Danielis: No, it's perfectly okay. And I want to say something about that is, is yes, the ability to see others and not be seen if your health is such that you aren't very presentable but that you would appreciate the contact is very, very valuable. And that's a very, very good thing.

Stephanie: I try to go on camera most of the time, because it says that I'm there and I can see people and people see me and you know, so when I can do that I like it, but I definitely am not camera ready sometimes, you know.  I definitely have sat there with the camera off the whole time for a variety of reasons. So I think it's a great option. It's really not required. It's the total come as you are -- the real deal come as you are. If you can get on the internet and find the link you can come to church.

Nathan: Zoom inclusion is about not doing things the way they were done in the past just because that's how they were done, but to look to the needs of the present and the future, and anticipate them. My case is a prime example of this. This time last year, I was a typical in-person congregant. My family and I would occasionally attend service over zoom as a matter of convenience, but it was always just a matter of choice, and I was in a good position to use whichever method worked best for me. After becoming active in zoom inclusion, though, it was driven home to me just how much of an advantaged position that was for me when I talked about this with those who couldn't physically even enter the church building. For them, it wasn't a matter of convenience, but of necessity. I became an advocate for zoom attendees to ensure that when it came to enjoying the service, music, and conversation, that they were not just afterthoughts. And for as much work as still needs to be done, it's made a difference. Our congregation is now so welcoming to our zoom attendees, that even those who may have lapsed attending for several years, or are relatives of congregants and who are unable to attend physically due to factors like distance,w are becoming regulars. By putting the work into zoom inclusion, I myself have become a beneficiary of it when my situation changed. So in November 2022, I accepted a position at Lego, one of my dream jobs, and that entailed relocating myself and my family all the way to Denmark. We made this move this past March and are settling in nicely. I have no question that the move we made was the best for my family, but still the reality of every facet of our lives being replaced by something new has been an adjustment. Navigating new relationships and social structures can be a lot. And it's been more important than ever before for us to be able to maintain our old bonds of friendship and community. So even across the distance of 5000 miles, it's been made easy to connect, just like before, and getting to see my son interact with his old friends is heartwarming. Possibly without the effort we had put into making the Zoom experience as good as it is, we may have just given up on trying to make it work from afar. So there you have it, when you practice zoom inclusion for those who need it, everyone benefits, and that includes those who have yet to take advantage of it. But maybe someday will.

Ben: We also checked in with our minister, Reverend Ruth Rinehart, to get her views on Zoom inclusion.

Rev. Ruth Rinehart: There's two directions there. One is I really very much appreciate how the Zoom inclusion group is looking at the experience of really being mindful about inclusion around zoom, as a way to look at other justice issues. And that Zoom inclusion is a relatively new thing for all of us to think about. I'm not sure I realized how recent it was when I started, I started in August, so it's been about nine months now that I've been working with this. So I love how it has created community, amongst the Zoomies that attend regularly. I love that it's interactive for the folks in the room, as well as the folks on Zoom, and how, as you've said, you've used the words, "it's a new oppression," you recognize that small acts were excluding the folks on Zoom, without any intention, right, no intention of excluding them. And so often in our world, we don't intend to oppress others, we don't intend to exclude them, but it takes work to look at those things, and try and open the circle wider.
Section 2: Tech Elements for Zoom Inclusion
Ben: We're just going to do a quick overview of the tech elements so you know what they are, but we won't go into exhaustive detail. You can find the details in the handout, or come to the Zoom conversation in August. This is a diagram of our tech setup for worship. We've labeled all the important elements and we hope it's pretty self explanatory. It shows the microphones, cameras, sound booth, projector, screen. Our zoom host isn't shown here, she's in another room. And for a long time she was in another state. The magic of the internet made that work just fine. Instead of reading the diagram, do you invite you to stop the video and study it at your leisure. Or look at the copy in the handout. You'll notice that our church is a nice compact rectangle. If your church is a different shape, or significantly different size, your setup might be quite different. Here's another example of how we use this technology for inclusion in another church context. This was a listening circle we had last summer to talk about our land acknowledgement. And it was important because there were a lot of strong feelings in the congregation about it. We had 42 people in this, nine of them on Zoom. We passed a mic around the circle that doubled as a talking stick and we put the faces camera in the middle so the Zoomies could see the speaker. Roomies could see the Zoomie speaker on the big screen. Zoomies got a turn just like everyone else. It was seamless. And again, you're welcome to stop the video to look closer, or you can look in the handouts.

Stephanie: Zoom station has just been amazingly important and fun. Just to see people's faces that they stop by and say hi. It's just really a delight. Hi!

Bob Britton: Hi Stephanie. How’s Frank?
Section 3: Worship Enhancements for Zoom Inclusion
Slide: Some Worship Enhancements from Starr King: Mic runner, Faces camera, “The Wave”, Screen sharing words, Lighting two chalices, Zoom greeter. What might work for your congregation

Ben: Here are some examples of the ways we've enhanced worship to give remote participants the same high quality experience as in-person attendees. We have a mic runner for when in-person visitors introduce themselves, and other times when congregants speak. We added a camera at the front of the sanctuary so the Zoomies can see the faces of the Roomies. This was a low budget change -- a cheap tablet on a cheap tripod. But because it's a tablet, it can use Wi Fi to make its own zoom connection. Simple! We wave q happy greeting to each other at the start and end of every service. We screenshare and project hymn lyrics and other words that we say or sing together. We light two chalices, one in the physical sanctuary and one in the Zoom sanctuary. And we have a zoom greeter to welcome Zoomies and facilitate conversation after worship. Which of these changes do you think might work for your congregation?

Stephanie: Having the microphone when the visitors are introduced is surprisingly important because it's just one of these tiny little tendrils of connection like oh, that's so and so's daughter visiting from Florida is here this week and they came to church with them, or something, you know, it's like just these little bits of people's lives that you see by the fact of who was introduced. And when we couldn't hear those that really was a disconnect. It really was an exclusion. So shout out for that one.

Rev. Ruth: One of the things that you've done really well is you've added that extra device that we often call the faces camera so that the folks on Zoom can see the people in the sanctuary better. It's not intuitive. Each week, we say, okay, "wave" and point to that device, because that's where the Zoomies can see you, waving to. It's sweet. Yeah, it's a sweet part of every service, the beginning and the end, where the Zoomies and the Roomies interact with each other.

Ben: Yeah, I love it. I love it.

Rev. Ruth: I know, I know!

Ben: We've talked about the Zoom Chalice. We light two chalices, one in the physical sanctuary and one in our zoom sanctuary.

Stephanie: I like it! I can see it during the whole service. And sometimes I just scroll across the people in my view, to get to the chalice and just focus there for a minute. So I've come to really like it

Maria: As the chalice lighter, I really like it. It's meaningful to me, I look at the candle also. And also it's something we do, maybe not exactly the same moment as that's hard, but in two different places, the same thing is being done. And that's another connection,

Danielis: The idea of having the Zoom chalice dignifies the Zoom space as acknowledging it as equally sacred and holy and part of the service. And I think that's important.

Ben: We started it because we started thinking about the words we were using it we were saying, "we in the sanctuary" and "you on zoom" and if we're in the sanctuary, and you're not, where are you? You're out there in some unsanctified space? And so we decided to sanctify the Zoom space as well, by lighting the chalice.

Ben: What we're doing here is primarily visual. So a congregation may want to discuss creating a ritual that involves sound to include individuals who cannot see, perhaps by including audio of a flame being lit, lighting a match, for instance. <sound of striking a match>

Ben: Let's talk about the greeter for a minute, I'm wondering what your feeling is about that? Did that make a difference?

Maria: I think it made a tremendous difference. It was very warm and welcoming. And we didn't know everybody and to have someone acknowledge you and welcome you and explain what was going on, and then afterwards, sit and chat and get to know you a little. I think that was a wonderful, warm, welcoming feeling.

Larry Emerson: Almost as good as being there.

Slide: But what about the children?
Section 4: Zoom Inclusion for Children
Nathan: Zoom inclusion doesn't just have to be about a listening circle or the service, it can be as specific as the religious education component of a church. For instance, with our church, we've set up the mobile zoom station in Fellowship Hall to act as the video station for kids to call in from anywhere. Like my son Oliver calls in now from Denmark, and is able to interact with his old friends that are there physically in the church as they have their Happy Heart Circle Time, when all the kids get to interact, and go around and share how their heart feels. And it's been a joy to see him get to interact with old friends just like before.

Lorie Miller: Olly, I have a candle for you. Do you want to say how your heart feels?

Oliver Heigert: My heart feels excited because we're moving to a new house.

Lorie: What country are you in?

Oliver: Um... Denmark?

Lorie: Do you guys know where Denmark is? Very far away! It's across the ocean. I'm going to show the tray. Can you see that? Olly?

Diane Meyerson: Can I make it closer for him? Just for a moment?

Lorie: Just for a moment. Look at all that stuff.

Diane: And just so you can check out what's there

Lorie: 123 -- What don't you see? What do you think is missing? Olly, can you see? What's missing?

Oliver: Knife? I said knife? Like knife?
Section 5: Our Process - The Wins and the Challenges
Stephanie: Thinking back on our process, we started out gradually and we added the elements one by one. And that kept it from being overwhelming, and I think probably minimized resistance. At first, it was just the three of us. 

Slide: Drawing showing the flow from the ZIG (3 people) to the minister to the worship committee to the board to the zoom inclusion policy.

We came up with the name zoom inclusion group, ZIG. And then Reverend Ruth started as our interim minister and she embraced the concept and her support was crucial, and is crucial to our success. We're really grateful. With her help and support, we added all the worship elements that we've talked about here. Then we brought the Zoom inclusion initiative to the worship committee and asked for and received their support. The next step was that the worship committee sent a draft Zoom inclusion policy to the board and asked their support, and the Board approved the Zoom inclusion policy. So that's how we got to where we are today.

Ben: We've included a copy of the policy in the handouts if you'd like to see it. We didn't stop with the policy, of course. We continue to support remote inclusion for all church activities whenever possible, and to keep imagining and experimenting with new ideas.

Slide: We’re very clear why we’re doing it – in our heads and in our hearts.

Part of our success has come from being very clear why we're doing it, both intellectually and emotionally. The intellectual clarity comes from understanding that remote inclusion is about love, justice, equity, those inseparable ideas that are foundational to our faith, but also about connection, accessibility, flexibility, and ministry. We care deeply about all these things, and remote inclusion enhances all of them. That's a big win. The emotional clarity comes from seeing each other every Sunday, waving to each other, being able to say, Hi, how are you? It's so good to see you. This is such a simple thing, and yet the joy of it is palpable. The Zoomies went from often forgotten onlookers to, as Stephanie said, members of the group in another location, valued members of the group in another location.
Grappling with imperfection

One of the things we've grappled with along the way is just how imperfect we are. We keep getting reminded of this. It shows up in a number of ways. One of them is the countless little tech details involved in worship. These require intense concentration to get every little detail right, and human beings just aren't designed for that. So there's typically at least one little tech goof in every service. We have high standards. We practice. We rehearse each service on Sunday morning, and we do our best. 

Slide: Connection, not perfection

After that our motto is connection, not perfection. Another way we sometimes screw up is we still sometimes forget all about the zoomies, when planning something. I've been a passionate advocate of zoom inclusion for almost a year now and I still forget at times. For example, a few months ago, we put up some materials in the foyer about the new Article II, the draft Article II, and I was making an announcement about it in worship. And then I thought, Zoomies! I'm sorry, I didn't think about you, I will get you these materials.

Slide: Full inclusion is not always workable. 
Sometimes full remote inclusion just isn't workable. For example, we had a committee meeting last fall that was an important meeting, I won't go into details, I'll just say that person who ran it put a lot of energy into preparing and running the meeting and that used up all the capacity they had in that moment. The thought of also interfacing with remote participants was just too much. So we said, "We're sorry, we just can't do it this time". We owned it; we apologized; it was what we could do that day. This is accountability: having high standards, caring when we miss, and giving ourselves and each other grace when sometimes our best isn't what we'd like. Self care is important to and knowing our limits. 
Grappling with technology
Remote inclusion almost always involves a high level of technology. There are some exceptions we'll get to in a minute, but mostly, it's pretty high tech. Here are a few considerations. 

Slide: Are Zoomies getting the whole experience?
First, are zoomies getting the whole experience. Does the remote feed deliver every spoken word, all the music, and views of what's happening in the room? Can Zoomies see Roomies and vice versa, at least at times? Ask the Zoomies. 

Slide: Can Zoomies participate in meaningful ways? 
Second, can Zoomies participate in meaningful ways? If you're having a flower communion, a water communion, a book communion, is there a way to make that meaningful for remote participants? it won't be exactly the same. It can't be exactly the same. But making some effort to be inclusive can go a long way. In a book communion, for instance, one or more of the Zoomies could share about a favorite book, and they could be invited to talk about their favorite books in the conversation after worship.

Slide: Impact on the worship leader
We've been talking here about the technical dimensions of worship, but of course, that's not what worship is about. The worship leader's job is to create a sacred space and within that sacred space to foster a deep spiritual and relational experience. This uses a completely different part of the brain from the technology center. 

Slide: image of a head with orange metal gears in the front half and sparkling lights in the back half. 

If the worship leader has to think about tech, that means they're out of the worship zone and into the tech zone. And that can be a real loss. Most people don't become ministers because they want to do tech. There's also the preparation for worship, dealing with an order of service document that's really a script, complete with detailed tech instructions like for play. Both Rev. Ruth and some of our lay leaders have reported feeling overwhelmed by the amount of tech directions in that document. We made it better with some format changes to clearly separate the worship elements from the tech directions. And we've reintroduced an old form that lists our typical liturgical elements in order, so the worship leader can plan the service just thinking about those -- on a piece of paper even -- and then insert them into the order service.

Slide: Not everything has to be multiplatform

I mentioned a few minutes ago that remote inclusion is often quite technical, but it doesn't have to be. For example, not everything has to be multi-platform. Some activities such as cottage meetings and small group ministry do not lend themselves to multi platform arrangements. Sometimes offering a virtual only option alongside an in person only option is the best approach.
Section 6: Parallels to Other Inclusion Initiatives
Ben: We've talked about how Zoom inclusion has intrinsic value to the church, bringing our zoomies solidly inside our circle of love and strengthening connections for all participants. Zoom inclusion also has value as a laboratory, a space in which to learn about oppression without the emotional weight of historical oppressions. We don't have a lot of cultural programming about it. We're still learning how to do it. We're still flexible. It's pretty small potatoes compared to any of the major oppressions. And at the same time, it has so many parallels to them that if we can master this one, we'll be better prepared to tackle them. Here are some of the facets of our journey that could apply to other contexts as well. In the slides that "we" refers to the privilege group.
Our Journey: The Awakening

Our journey began with us waking up to some realizations. That we were hurting people that we love, and we were hurting the church. We had to realize there were important things we didn't know that we had to learn, and that we had to do that in relationship with the people most impacted.

Slide: Nothing about us without us
Nathan: Yes, I learned that there's a principle to anti oppression work that goes that "nothing about us without us." That's an important lesson that I learned from the ZIG experience, which is that the privileged group does not just recognize the problem, and then decide on the solution for the problem and leave out the oppressed group entirely. That is just as problematic as not addressing it at all. It was a process of trying different things and first gathering their perspective and understanding it and learning from that and trying to apply it.

Ben: Stephanie, how did that feel being involved?

Slide: Inclusion / exclusion is a very tender thing
Stephanie: I think at first it was surprising. It wasn't really on my radar exactly. So to hbe asked, Well, how was that for you? As we got into it, I realized, oh, inclusion, exclusion, being a member of groups or not, is a very tender thing. Do I matter enough? Am I loved? And I think that having all that brought up and say, Oh, this somebody actually did reach out. It was kind of startling at first. And then being asked a lot of questions. I thought, oh, here we go. UUs! I feel another survey coming. But it was really important, because it was hurtful.

Slide: Some things that seemed trivial to roomies were important to Zoomies – and that’s what matters

Nathan: So that from my perspective, originally being a Roomie was that there were some things that may have seemed trivial that we thought maybe we could live with, but that when we heard more from those Zoomies it turned out that it was not trivial at all to them.
Our Journey: The Assessment I. Do we care enough?

Ben: The next step in our journey was to ask ourselves, how much we care? Do we care enough to be inconvenienced, to be uncomfortable at times? Do we care enough to make some sacrifices, to spend some money, to change our ways, and to keep at it? These are not trivial questions. The inconvenience, the discomfort, the sacrifice can be quite real. And I think acknowledging them when they show up is helpful, instead of just saying, Well, you shouldn't feel that so keep going. 
Our Journey: The Assessment II. Costs of doing it. Costs of not doing it.

Cost of doing it – there are all these different changes, maybe some money -- that's not trivial. So why are we doing it? There's the cost of not doing it, too. That's important. Not living our values, weakening our community, losing our members. So getting in touch with the why of doing it, that seems critical to me. 
Our Journey: The Process. Individual, cultural, and institutional changes

Let's talk a little bit about the individual, cultural, and institutional changes that we had to make. Individual changes are each of us realizing that there was something here we had to pay attention to, there was something that mattered that we needed to learn about and support, participate in. Cultural changes sort of ties in with that. I'm saying something in the physical sanctuary and I don't have the mic or the mic isn't working. And so we have a culture where somebody can say, please stop till you get the mic. And now please start over.

Stephanie: I think this shift from this is something special we do for a formal meeting, versus this is what we do all the time. It's like there's a feeling well, it's just us, we don't need a microphone. So when the "just us" became the Zoomies and people were actually willing to use a microphone basically all the time and stop and wait for it to get to somebody, then we are really part of the group.

Nathan: And I'd say that part of being an ally and to learn from your mistakes is something that is challenging for people, because they might not be comfortable admitting that they've made a mistake. But simple things like learning that it's okay to speak up and to stop the conversation from continuing and just breaking the taboo of interrupting the flow, because it's not something you do in a formal occasion like a church. But let's just say a mistake was made. Let's rectify it, when we see it, I think it's instructive. And it teaches us that we can be imperfect. And that's necessary to learning that once you acknowledge that, and once you can admit that then the healing and the growing can happen. And you can see how that can be applied to more than just zoom inclusion.

Ben: The point you made about interrupting formal occasions, I was in the sound booth last Sunday, and I interrupted worship, because I was getting information that the Zoomies couldn't hear. And it turned out to be just one person and if I'd been a little more clever, I'd have figured that out before stopping the whole show. But if the Zoomies really couldn't hear, I didn't want it to keep going and then we'd have had to rewind more. So I just stopped it. And I had to get my courage together to do that, you know, interrupting the minister in the middle of worship, who does that? But it was okay. It was okay. And we sorted it out. And then we went on, and it just reinforced the message that the Zoomies have to be able to hear! And if they can't hear, we have to stop and fix it.

Stephanie: It was appreciated, because we could hear, but I thought if we couldn't, somebody stepped in. It was really appreciated.

Nathan: And I think it just makes us all feel like a close knit community that we don't have to be embarrassed to speak up on behalf of each other, or even speak up by mistake or what have you. We don't have to be so precious about it. Like we can forgive each other for things like that. And I think it was great.

Ben: Institutional changes: We've done quite a lot of things. We've talked about our zoom inclusion policy, and the worship template that's the starting point for every service has these zoom elements built into it: the wave at the beginning, the wave at the end, making sure the Zoomies can unmute at certain times. That's in the script! The worship leader doesn't have to remember it. It's there. Another change we've mentioned is getting some more equipment, and training the tech team and how to use it.

Nathan: These are elemental and to the core institutional changes that you've named, and I feel like people at first may have not seen the need for some of these and resisted some of them just out of convenience. But I think now everyone appreciates just how normal these changes feel now that we've included them.
Our Journey: The Rewards
Slide continued: Seeing the people we love feel loved. Feeling more connected ourselves. Strengthening and enlivening our community. Living our values better, including caring for the most vulnerable among us. Creating a more just and loving world. Feeling joy. 
Ben: Getting in touch with the rewards of this journey has been a really important part of it. There were some things we expected, or at least hoped for, like having Zoomies feel more connected. But there were also surprising rewards, like how everyone in the community feels more connected. In the early days of this initiative, I think maybe the costs of not doing it, like losing members, were more in the forefront of our minds than the rewards, as we didn't know what some of the rewards would be. 

Slide: The rewards far outweigh the costs

But it's now so clear that the rewards far outweigh the costs. That's been one of the great lessons of this. Yes, there's been some inconvenience and we had to spend some money and we had to make changes, but it's been so worth it.

Slide: It’s worth it
In Conclusion
Nathan: We'd like to close by describing how this work fits into the themes of this General Assembly.

Stephanie: Becoming Adaptive and Resilient. Multi-platform worship is the way of the future. It's flexible, it protects the health of our most vulnerable members. And it isn't just about worship, it affects us in all aspects of congregational life. Multi-platform competency positions us to adjust quickly as global and local health conditions change and strengthens our community, not just for the remote participants but for everyone. Online communities are expected by younger people and are often a key source of connection and support. This is a step towards an interactive online presence.

Ben: Becoming Theologically Rooted. We have a theology of love and justice that lifts up community as the saving grace in these challenging times. Multi-platform inclusion is a powerful way to express that love, and to make striving towards equity a living practice

Nathan: Becoming Skilled in Faithful Praxis. Our Zoom Inclusion Project has given us opportunities to recognize how we can unknowingly and completely unintentionally send messages of exclusion such as you're invisible, you're not important that contradict the messages of love and worth that we want to send. It's a way of learning about microaggressions without the defensiveness that term can produce. It helps us get past the belief that we welcome everyone to see ways in which we are not welcoming and address them lovingly. We want to welcome everyone who shares our values. This project helps us move closer to that ideal by learning about some of the obstacles and embracing the personal, cultural, and institutional changes required to create full inclusion.

Stephanie: Becoming Connected in Community. This is an offering from our community to yours, lessons we've learned in how to strengthen connection and community. Let's connect across congregations to help each other do multi-platform inclusion better, and learn how it strengthens our other justice work.

Ben: And finally, the GA theme, Faithfully Becoming. All of this feeds into the holy work of becoming a more loving and inclusive community.

Any other thoughts you'd like to share?

Rev. Ruth: It's wonderful that this workshop is happening. And I hope you get lots of feedback from it. And I'm glad that you have initiated this and I hope more congregations will jump in on it. Especially because most congregations are small, in Unitarian Universalist world. Most of them are. So this is a very good format and orientation to multi-platform, which is here to stay.

Stephanie: The feeling of not being included hurts. It's so it's so painful. When somebody did something, it started to feel better. And I realized, oh my gosh, this is really, really, really important. So thank you.

Congregants: Hello!